Twenty silver minerals of the sulphide, arsenide, selenide, telluride, sulphosalt and chloride groups were found in 13 locations in the Variscan Karkonosze granitoid pluton. Previously only one of these minerals was known from this area. The findings include species characterized in publications as rare or exceptionally rare, e.g., muthmannite and tsnigriite. They occur in pegmatites and quartz veins; their parageneses are described. The studies include determination of chemical compositions, formulae calculations and recording of XRD patterns. Inclusion studies in paragenetic quartz indicate that they crystallized from epithermal fluids with a common but low component of CO ₂. The results suggest that the minerals formed from trace elements (Ag included) in the Karkonosze granitoid due to very local degrees of recrystallization of the host granitoid.

The aim of this article is to present the results of research aimed at confirmation whether it is possible to form an intermediate band in GaAs implantation with H+ ions. The obtained results were discussed with particular emphasis on possible applications in the photovoltaic industry. As it is commonly known, the idea of intermediate band solar cells reveals considerable potential as the most fundamental principle of the next generation of semiconductors solar cells. In progress of the research, a series of GaAs samples were subjected to poly-energy implantation of H+ ions, followed by high-temperature annealing. Tests were conducted using thermal admittance spectroscopy, under conditions of variable ambient temperature, measuring signal frequency in order to localize deep energy levels, introduced by ion implantation. Activation energy ΔE was determined for additional energy levels resulting from the implantation of H+ ions. The method of determining the activation energy value is shown in Fig. 2 and the values read from it are σ0 = 10−9 (Ω·cm)−1 for 1000/T0 = 3.75 K−1 and σ1 = 1.34 × 10−4 (Ω·cm)−1 for 1000/T1 = 2.0 K−1. As a result, we obtain ΔE ≈ 0:58 eV. It was possible to identify a single deep level in the sample of GaAs implanted with H+ ions. Subsequently, its location in the band gap was determined by estimating the value of ΔE. However, in order to confirm whether the intermediate band was actually formed, it is necessary to perform further analyses. In particular, it is necessary to implement a new analytical model, which takes into consideration the phenomena associated with the thermally activated mechanisms of carrier transport as it was described in [13]. Moreover, the influence of certain parameters of ion implantation, post-implantation treatment and testing conditions should also be considered.

Careful selection of the physical model of the material for a specific doping and selected operating temperatures is a non-trivial task. In numerical simulations that optimize practical devices such as detectors or lasers architecture, this challenge can be very difficult. However, even for such a well-known material as a 5 µm thick layer of indium arsenide on a semi-insulating gallium arsenide substrate, choosing a realistic set of band structure parameters for valence bands is remarkable. Here, the authors test the applicability range of various models of the valence band geometry, using a series of InAs samples with varying levels of p-type doping. Carefully prepared and pretested the van der Pauw geometry samples have been used for magneto-transport data acquisition in the 20–300 K temperature range and magnetic fields up to ±15 T, combined with a mobility spectra analysis. It was shown that in a degenerate statistic regime, temperature trends of mobility for heavy- and light-holes are uncorrelated. It has also been shown that parameters of the valence band effective masses with warping effect inclusion should be used for selected acceptor dopant levels and range of temperatures.

The article presents the results of diameter mapping for circular-symmetric disturbance of homogeneity of epitaxially grown InAs (100) layers on GaAs substrates. The set of acceptors (beryllium) doped InAs epilayers was studied in order to evaluate the impact of Be doping on the 2-inch InAs-on-GaAs wafers quality. During the initial identification of size and shape of the circular pattern, non-destructive optical techniques were used, showing a 100% difference in average roughness between the wafer centre and its outer part. On the other hand, no volumetric (bulk) differences are detectable using Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution X-ray diffraction. The correlation between Be doping level and circular defect pattern surface area has been found.